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Halfway through the first quarter Tony Parker found himself wide open at the wing. This is not his preferred location for his jumper. So Tony, with all the time in the world, works his way and reveals his favorite spot on the floor. JRW had this to say about it, "I have never seen anyone take that much time to size up a shot, and still make it. Usually when guys are as wide open as Parker was there, they can't find a rhythm and they end up missing it."
Here we see Danny pass to Tim Duncan and then use Duncan to lose his defender. Green starts right, but reverses his direction when he sees Gerald Henderson taking away that side. As soon as Danny goes left the play is made, and he takes one dribble through the lane before making a jump pass to a waiting Boris Diaw under the basket. Those are easy points.
Nando de Colo, in the midst of a run where he scored seven of nine for the Spurs, finds himself being double-teamed. He dribbles out of it, makes a pass to Jeff Ayres at the free throw line, and before the pass even gets to Ayres, Nando is diving to the basket where Jeff finds him with an excellent bounce-pass. De Colo finishes with a simple layup and continues to make the most of his increased playing time due to the injuries.
Here we see the Spurs in transition with Patty getting the ball just below the break on the three-point line. Mills gives a slight hesitation, draws the defender to him, and drives all the way to the rim. Kemba Walker makes a play on the ball, but Patty is patient and finishes with a tough lefty layup to put the Spurs up by two, 76-74. Check out The Big Fundamental anticipate the finish from Patty. He's out of his seat before Patty has even put up the shot. The leader, the over-sized older brother of the team, no doubt gives a shout of encouragement as Patty gets back on defense. Timmy's such a great teammate.
This play sees every Spur on the court touch the ball. Matt Bonner to Mills to Ayres, then back to Mills who is double-teamed. A quick pass back to Ayres who finds Cory Joseph and from there CoJo finds resistance, but de Colo mirrors Joseph and this time the lane is open. Jeff Ayres is waiting for the pass and he gives a pump fake to get two defenders off of their feet before finishing with a layup.
This is a pretty sweet play. Boris Diaw is just left of the center of the arc when he receives the ball from Mills. He takes two steps and a dribble before almost handing the ball off to a curling Patty, but because Bobo is patient, as well as an effective obstacle for a defender to get around, he instead finds an open Patty in the lane. Good timing on the pass, and Patty puts the ball on the floor once before pulling up short and using a Parker-like floater for two points.
A tip of the hat to J.R. Wilco, who was very helpful in this edition of GIF Breakdown.
Bonus GIF:
After the game was over, Timmy does his thing where he waits for each teammate, and gives them a backwards high five or fist bump, before leaving the court last. This was Timmy giving Patty some fives and a hug/head tap. This team is easy to root for, they all like each other, which makes liking them easy.
